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With a jolt from Speedy, the Ticats are one win away from their first Grey Cup in 20 years — the Blue Bombers await

It was before more than 52,000 fans in the 102nd Grey Cup game at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver that, for a few moments, Banks seemed to put his name among the greatest heroes ever to shine in Canada’s professional football championship. With less than a minute to play in the game and the Tiger-Cats trailing Calgary by four points, he collected a punt at his own 20-yard line and raced down the field for what appeared to be a dramatic Grey Cup-winning touchdown.

“It was probably one of the saddest moments of my life,” Banks said Sunday.

That comment came after one of the happiest, a triumph by this year’s Tiger-Cats over the Edmonton Eskimos at Tim Hortons Field that sent the Tabbies to the Grey Cup for the first time since that heartbreaking night on the west coast in 2014. Banks, then the CFL’s best kick returner, is now a finalist for the most outstanding player award, having developed into one of the league’s best receivers with 112 receptions.

Known by the nickname Speedy, the diminutive Banks made two sensational, diving catches to spark Hamilton’s relatively easy 36-16 win over the Esks. One produced a spectacular touchdown in the first half, and the other set up a short fourth-quarter TD run to ice the game.

“Speedy makes plays in big-time games,” said Hamilton’s starting quarterback Dane Evans. “That (first half) catch was one of the best catches I’ve ever been part of.”

The Tabbies now return to the game they used to call the Grand National Drunk, looking for their first championship since 1999. The Cats are coached by the charismatic Orlondo Steinauer, who made a big interception to help key that ’99 triumph.

“We have a lot of heart. We have a great mindset,” said Steinauer. “I knew in training camp we had the makings of a team like this. We just had to find the right men.”

Along the way, Hamilton had to overcome the seemingly catastrophic loss of starting quarterback Jeremiah Masoli in the first quarter of the sixth game of the season. All they had in reserve was Evans, promising enough to allow Hamilton to end the Johnny Manziel experiment a year earlier, but otherwise an inexperienced and unaccomplished Texan.

The Cats were 4-1 when Masoli went down. Instead of faltering, they finished with a sparkling 15-3 record with Evans under centre, and Sunday’s win before 25,177 fans left them a perfect 10-0 at home.

The Tiger-Cats will face the upstart Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Grey Cup game next Sunday at McMahon Stadium in Calgary. The Bombers stunned the hometown Saskatchewan Roughriders 20-13 in the West Division final, stopping the Riders twice inside the Winnipeg 10-yard line in the final three minutes.

It was the second road victory of the playoffs for the Bombers, who finished 11-7 in the regular season and will be significant underdogs to the powerful Tiger-Cats. In two meetings this season, Hamilton won both by a combined 56-28 margin.

On Sunday, there was a strong whiff of expectation in the air outside Tim Hortons Field to go with strong gusts of cannabis as the Tiger-Cats faithful prepared for what they hoped would be a coronation. The atmosphere was pure fun, and it’s extraordinary that less than an hour’s drive from BMO Field — which has become a graveyard of apathy for the Argonauts — a grassroots, blue-collar party vibe has been created.

The neighbourhood looks much the same as it did when Angelo Mosca and Tommy Joe Coffey played for the home team. But with a large tailgate party in a hardscrabble parking lot north of the stadium fuelling a delicious stew of mayhem, fun, confusion, gridlock and co-operation, there’s a great deal more atmosphere before Hamilton home games than was the case 20, 30 or 40 years ago. Bob Young has owned the team for 16 years and helped build a stadium, and Hamilton fans have gradually responded with affection and commitment, helping the Ticats become the strongest CFL franchise in eastern Canada.

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“It was friggin’ sweet, is what it was,” said the exuberant Evans, who completed 21 of 36 passes for 386 yards. “I’ll never forget that sight. It was really cool.”

The Esks were apparently so taken aback by the black-out that they had players lined up at both ends of the field for the opening kickoff. Edmonton erred early and often, with an interception, a fumble and a horrendous punt with a net distance of one yard. The Albertans trailed 10-0 before the game was 10 minutes old and never seriously threatened the first-place Tiger-Cats.

Already, there’s talk this might be the best Hamilton team ever. Better than the ’99 champs. Better than Jerry Williams’ talented 1972 squad led by Chuck Ealey. But to earn that distinction, the Tiger-Cats need to seal the deal next Sunday against a hardnosed Winnipeg team.

It’s expected to be minus-15C or colder in Cowtown on game day. The Tiger-Cats have been sizzling since June. They’re hoping to stay hot for one more game.

Damien Cox is a former Star sports reporter who is a current freelance contributing columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @DamoSpin

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